Ten soldiers, five worshippers killed in Thailand

THAILAND: Ten soldiers were killed late Thursday in a bomb attack and ambush by militants in Thailand's restive Muslim-majority south, and five other people were shot dead inside a mosque, officials said.

An army pick-up truck carrying 10 soldiers was first hit by a roadside bomb and then ambushed by Islamic rebels in Yala province, said Colonel Acra Tiproach, an army spokesman.

"All 10 soldiers in the truck were killed," Acra told AFP.

At least five young men were shot dead by gunmen in a separate incident in the restive south, the army spokesman said.

The men were killed while they were praying at a mosque in the Saba Yoi district of Songkhla province, which is near Yala.

"The victims were all men in their 20s. They were killed inside the mosque," Acra said, but did not give further details.

A bomb attack at a busy market in the Saba Yoi district on Monday killed four people, including two children, and wounded 23.

Thursday's deadly attacks capped a day of violence in Thailand's restive south, where two other people were shot dead and nine soldiers injured in bomb blasts earlier in the day.

Thailand's military-installed government, which came to power after a coup in September 2006, has launched a series of peace-building measures but violence has only escalated.

Yala, Friday, AFP